Posted By Daniel Greenfield On June 20, 2013 @ 1:23 pm In The Point | No Comments

When Obama talks about fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, a lot of the time he’s really talking about the Haqqani Network, an Islamic group with close ties to Pakistan and Al Qaeda. A lot of the truly nasty attacks there in recent years have been carried out by the Haqqani Network.

Osama bin Laden joined the Haqqani Network when he went to Afghanistan. It can be thought of as the closest link between Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

A Taliban delegation that will enter formal talks with the United States in Qatar later this week will, according to a U.S. official, also represent the Haqqani network, a group that has existed far longer than either the Taliban or al-Qaeda and has played a key role of terror enabler to both.

“All I’ve seen of the Haqqanis would make it hard for me to believe they were reconcilable,” International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander Gen. Joseph Dunford acknowledged during a Pentagon press conference by phone on Tuesday.

This entire scam is based on the delusion that the Taliban only want Afghanistan and they’ll be satisfied with setting up a local Emirate there. The Taliban are part of a global Islamist movement. Their funding is international. That is especially true of the Haqqani network. They’re not going to score dough from the Saudis and Kuwaitis to make peace with America in the long term.